Last night my family and I went to see Bruce Cockburn at the Fur Peace Ranch in Meigs Co., Ohio (between Athens and Pomeroy). I had not heard of the place until recently. Its a camp hosting concerts and weekend-long guitar workshops. See this link.

It may have been the single best concert I have ever attended. The evening could not have been more perfect. I am used to arriving at a concert somewhat stressed out from the traffic and the crowds. But "The Ranch", as the locals call it, is in the middle of rural farm country. The setting was idyllic, the weather glorious, the staff gracious, the acoustics fine (the hall seats about 200), and the concert-goers enthusiastic but respectful of each other and the artist. During the songs, you could hear a pin drop in the hall, while in between there was thunderous applause. Everyone was there for the music. There was no chattering, no selfies.

Bruce played solo on the smaller of his two 6-string Manzers.

He played two sets of about an hour each with a long break in between. His signing voice was strong and pitch perfect (although his speaking voice was somewhat raspy) and his guitar work was as masterful as ever.

He performed two songs from his upcoming album, Bone on Bone: a lovely ballad called 40 Days in the Wilderness, and the title track, an intricate instrumental with intentionally dissonant chord changes. He noted that the title of the song (and album) came from the feeling he experiences playing difficult guitar pieces at his age (72). The new album is due out in September.

After the show, Bruce sat at a table in the back of the hall, signed autographs and posed for pictures. I chatted with him for a short while about geeky guitar things and found him as personable and gracious as he always is. I don't know how many times I've seen him now, maybe a dozen since 1979. And I certainly couldn't count how many overall concerts I've been to in my lifetime...a lot. But last night was truly something special.

Thanks for the review - and the heads up about his new album coming out.

I've never seen him live - I've never been close to someplace where he played. I've been a fan since 1979's Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws - I heard "Wondering Where the Lions Are" on AM radio and was blown away, have bought nearly every album since then (and went back and got his earlier stuff). It helped that one of my closest friends (also an excellent guitar player) was a big fan; he loaned me a few of Bruce's early albums, which I recorded on cassette at the time (before buying them myself on both LP and CD).

My son and I went to Reverend Gary Davis weekend concert a few years ago (Jorma greeted us at the gate) and the stage was occupied by Jorma along with Stefan Grossman, Roy Book Binder and Ernie Hawkins who were students of Rev Davis.

Not only is the venue great and this may sound like an unusual observation, but they had the cleanest bathrooms I have ever seen in my life.